The educational environment of a departmental university as a means of cadet’s personality formation

The paper substantiates the importance of educating personal qualities of an employee of the penal system (PS) that meet universal and professional moral standards and outlines the role of a departmental university in educating a cadet’s personality. It is argued that the educational environment of a departmental university is one of the central means of shaping and developing a cadet’s personality – a prospective PS employee as a person and a professional. The analysis of the concept «environment» in the context of different levels of education (school, university) is carried out. The paper summarizes scientific ideas about the educational environment of the departmental university, which is a set of circumstances, conditions specific to the departmental higher education institution, which affect the cadet, contributing to the formation of his personality as a prospective specialist. The list of organizational and pedagogical conditions for development of the educational environment of a departmental higher educational institution in relation to the educational environment of higher educational institutions of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia is supplemented – filling the educational environment with values that, penetrating into the value sphere of cadets’ consciousness and becoming its integral part, create a value barrier that cannot be overcome by the anti-values of the criminal world. Approaches to formation, development, formation of the educational environment of a departmental university are indicated: molecular, factorial, synergetic, competence, culturological, axiological, ethnopedagogical, individually creative, dialogical, which are complemented by an environmental approach. The importance of the environmental approach in organizing the educational environment of a departmental university is substantiated. The content of the basic concepts of the environmental approach is revealed: niche; element; lifestyle; personality as an object and a subject of education; environment-forming action. The specificity of the implementation of the environmental approach to the organization of the educational environment of the departmental higher educational institution of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia is revealed.